yogen | npc contact.3

[ Summer. It's not so bad as the unfiltered heat on the rooftop, but while there are some trees lining the street, they mostly stand in yards too far for branches to extend their shade all the way to the sidewalk. The winter uniform is kind of suffering, actually, but Maya would not say no to cutting this "date" short on account of it. ]

No, I'm not letting you see what my house looks like. It's a bit of a walk, but the shopping center is just up ahead. There's air conditioning inside.

( They should've ditched their jackets at the elevator. It isn't too late.

....Yeah, it isn't too late, he's going to take his off and toss it back in with his bag. It's not like his tallies are a secret, and they haven't grown in number, so it's fine. It's fine, around her. )

I know you wouldN'T. It just seemed a waste not to ask anyWAY. ( He won't hold out hope though; it'd take a while, and though they have time they don't have that much time. ) ...Is it going to be as empty as HERE?

Yes.

[ It's exactly what it looks like: a painfully normal world, whose nightmare consists of being completely devoid of people. No friends, no family, no strangers, no enemies... an ideal, sometimes, and other times the silence becomes grating and the insignificance suffocating. ]

Do you understand what this place is?

( Better than Yogen by a mile. He wonders if she comes down here on her own to escape the ... everything school life can be, then shrugs and leans closer. )

A lover's paraDISE.

( ...They're the only two people in the world, after all.

But he's stepping away quickly to move down the street, not really having to feign interest as he glances at houses and everything else. )

In geneRAL, ( he says back to her, voice raising for the little distance he's put between them, ) it's what you imagine to be the worst possible thing to happen to your world, isn't IT? Mine is...

( ... )

A total collapse of the "idol utopia" we've all been working to aCHIEVE, falling right back into its old and unhappy circumstances it was supposed to be a sanctuary FROM. In esSENCE. ( Which doesn't really mean anything to people who aren't idols, but, well. ) And yours is—

( a turn on his heel, looking at her, curious. )

...Being completely and utterly aLONE?

[ ughhhhhhhhhhh smart of him to move away. Maya doesn't bother looking around as she walks; she made that mistake the first few time she's been here, desperately wanting to catch someone on the other side of the windows but the only person who ever stared back was her own reflection.

While not a lot, she does come down here occasionally. Not to escape, but rather to remind herself: it could be worse. ]

...Something like that. It figures you take your job seriously enough for that to be the world you're shown, though.

[ As for her... being student council president is only a means to an end. Her world isn't the school, isn't the bloodlust and bloodshed of day to day living, because at least there, at school, her efforts mean something. She has a council to lead. She has a brother to protect.

Who is she without all of that? ... ]

I didn't bring you hear to talk about that, though. I just thought it would be a nice place to spend some time.

[ She has somebody with her, after all. Him being here already stops this place from being her personal hell. ]

( Lover's paradise it is, though the emptiness eventually has him slowing down so he can fall into step with her again. Less empty, then. There really isn't anyone or anything else here... It's such an ordinary nightmare.

He's glad for it. )

Even if your company is ME?

( ...♪ )

[ STOMPS ON HIS FOOT
wipe that grin off your face, mister ]

( SO EVEN IF THAT COMPANY IS HIM? )

You-- ( ow... ow... he's not going to stop grinning he's just going to look away so she can see it, same thing!!! ) have such a cute face when you're embarrasSED, Little Wolf. I can't help but want to see it more and more ♪

[ Hurry up and go blind already!!!! ]

I'm going to shove you into the fountain.

( no, you have to wait until september for that though february is the halfway point so he'll be half-half blind.

he already doesn't really like how degraded his vision is now, but he doesn't want to let her know that. )

But I'm already dripping with good LOOKS. It'd be such a WASTE... though it might feel NICE.

( also, he might pull her in with him, you have been warned. )

[ ughhhhhhhhhhh he sure is dripping with something ]

You're banned from talking the rest of our way there.

( .................

Natsume pretends to turn a key and lock his mouth shut, still smiling, and extends his palm to her, as if to let her have this invisible key. )

[ She makes this face and takes his hand and then tugs him forward to keep walking like this is in exchange for his silence. Most people throw away the key, Hiro would have been clearer in his charades. ]

( Most people throw away the key because they aren't planning on using it as a way to hold someone's hand. Fortunately, Natsume is, thank you for cooperating...

...

He can be quiet, walking with her; he won't even do that stupid thing of swinging their hands. A little tempting to try and interlock their fingers, but he won't push his luck for now. They have time. )

[ If he tried she would have crushed his fingers in retaliation, but it's a nice quiet walk for several blocks, residential streets phasing into commercial, ones that would normally be overrun with cars if not for the eerie absence of anybody else in this ghost town.

The mall they eventually come up to is on the smaller side, two stories high and structured as stacked rings enclosing something of a courtyard at the center where a fountain full of pennies sprays water over ten feet high and flowering bushes line the perimeter, almost reminiscent of the school's courtyard. All the shops, naturally, have their lights off and aren't staffed, but there's clothing shops and an ice cream parlor and a small movie theater and an arcade and one of those indoor ice rinks with synthetic ice so that inside it's pleasantly cool but not freezing.

This is where the date planning stopped. ]

( ...Well, at least there's plenty of choice.

Movies would be easy, but someone would have to set everything up—not to mention they'd have to decide on a movie. You can't bring things back from the world down here, so outside of dressing cutely, shopping—or rather, shoplifting—from the clothing stores wouldn't serve much of a purpose... but her sense of style is cute, and she's probably dying in the uniform. It might not be a terrible idea to find something lighter to change into, even if she ended up sticking with the long sleeves business.

He could show off in the arcade, but they've technically already done games as a date. Natsume hmms softly, turning his attention to the ice rink.

... )

Do you know how to SKATE, Little Wolf?

Only forwards and backwards.

[ No jumps or spins or anything fancy, but she isn't against ice skating, especially since she's kind of dying in the uniform and she'd be dressed for the occasion in there. Natsume can shoplift a jacket, she'd sideeye him but not say anything. ]

Is that what you want to do?

Are you still holding to our "one activity only" rule on DATES?

( ... )

I do though, YES. ( If this is their one activity, so be it. ) But I don't know how to ice SKATE, so you'll have to teach ME... Pretty PLEASE ♪

[ ... ]

Yes.

[ Because if he's giving her a choice, she's making it, even if she has suspicions that not knowing how to skate is a lie. How can somebody know vr but not how to skate? ]

I'll teach you, but I won't claim to be a good teacher.

[ As she's expressed before, she is good at bossing people around, less good at holding people's hands through things. ]

( Is it really that weird? There's people who know how to ride horses who've only read how to skate, so the theory is there, but...

Yeah, Natsume's lying, he knows how to skate. Forwards and backwards and a few small, but impressive, tricks. )

I know THAT.

( And he still wants her to "teach" him. )

Thank you in adVANCE. I'll do my best to not disappoint YOU.

[ hm!!!!

But, fine. She can't decide whether to have high expectations for him or not, but it doesn't really matter. If he's a quick learner, great. If he keeps falling on his ass, great. ]

Let's get to it, then. You'll want to find skates that match your size exactly, and pull the laces as tight as you can. It's easier when somebody else does it, so we'll tie each others'.

( He can't tell if that's what she really believes or if this is her attempt at making this like a date, then figures it's the first and pulls her to find some skates then.

...He's never properly owned a pair of skates, so he can't judge quality, but ones for public use sure are something else. He ... lets her hand go to properly take his shoes off and set them aside neatly, tugging the skates on and aaalmost starting to tie them himself before he stops and looks at her. Drops the laces. Heheh.

...mini-talk time. )

Did you come here ofTEN? To the mall, that IS.

( Did she have friends to come with? Or just her brother? ...It's a little weird to imagine her just coming here to hang out like a regular girl, but years at Yogen aside, she is... just an ordinary girl. One he probably wouldn't have given much thought to without the circumstances they have now, but he's sure she could say the same for him, too. She doesn't seem like the kind of girls into idols, after all. )

[ OKAY SO maybe she's used to tying Hiro's laces all the time and just figures it's easier when she does it but anyways... yeah. Public skates are all banged up and scuffed everywhere and the blades are duller than it should be, but this is just a normal ice skating rink for normal people. ]

Only when we needed to buy something.

[ "We"... her brother? her parents? friends? There's no elaboration either way, attention turning to Natsume's skates to get them laced up. We're not doing this small talk thing. We're going to learn how to skate, then we're going back up the elevator, then she's going home. ]

Do you know how to rollerblade? Or is this all new?

( He's gonna give her date a 3/10 wtf

Anyaay, his nose scrunches and he looks off, uh. Better to say yes or no... No, if he says no that actually suits him, he doesn't like being out and rollerblading isn't elegant or pretty so it's okay. Lie or truth, though, he hasn't done it in a while. It's fine, )

..I haveN'T. ( ... ) But I'll manAGE. I wouldn't want you to spend the whole time teaching me anything--we should both be having a good TIME.

( Let him at her skates he'll tie them together. jk he'll do them normally don't worry )

[ Good. Don't come back. ]

If you're as quick a learned as you claim, then we won't be here long.

[ Skates on, she starts for the rink, little stomp stomp stomps on the soft ground bc you have to march with skates on until you get onto the ice, and when she does, she slides a little further towards the center of the rink to give Natsume ample space to come out too. ]

Hold onto the wall if you have to. Has your balance been affected much?

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